Put the fun between your legs: The Bike Bloc
Put the fun between your legs: Become the Bike Bloc is the creation of new tools of civil disobedience for the 16th of December Reclaim Power day of action. A collaboration between UK Climate Camp and art-activist collective The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, it will transform hundreds of discarded bikes into machines of creative resistance.
Bike hackers, welders, activists, artists and engineers are working together building the Bike Bloc at the Candy Factory, Norrebro’s free cultural space. Merging device of mass transportation and pedal powered tool of direct action, postcapitalist bike gang and swarm of rebel bees, the bike bloc will come alive from the 10th to the 15th of December. You are invited to become the Bike Bloc and put the fun between your legs.
How do I become the bike bloc?
Everything you need to know will be at the Candyfactory, Laerkevej 11, Norrebro (bus 5A or Norrebro S station). Come from 12 noon and get involved in building, plotting and training. A meeter greeter in a fluorescent jacket will be on hand to help with any questions you have.
A key to our success will be building confidence in riding and choreographing pedal powered resistance moves. To enable this we will be holding trainings every day at 3pm. We will learn to flow together on the streets, develop strategies and make quick consensus decisions on bikes. You will need to bring your bike or come in the morning to build your own.
Once you have taken part in a training you can make your own swarm (the bike bloc’s form of affinity group) and prepare to join the thousands that will take over the UN conference and transform it into a People’s Summit for Climate Justice on December 16th.
Important note: A final mass training will take place on 15th December at 3pm. This is our last chance to practice our smooth manoeuvres, anyone wishing to be part of the Bike Bloc should try to attend.
How to spawn a swarm
The bike bloc moves as a swarm, harnessing its collective energy and unpredictability to flow through the streets and create greater possibilities. The swarm is the way the bike bloc functions: individual cyclists who move and work together as an organised unit, with the potential to become an unstoppable force.
A swarm is spawned when a group of ten or so people come together, with the ubiquitous bicycle between their legs, determined to transform it and themselves into a tool of resistance.
If you aren’t part of a swarm, you can come to the trainings at the Candy Factory and meet like minded folk looking to spawn something!
Can I just bring my own bike?
Yes. Bring it to the workshop and have it specially adapted to become part of The Swarm. There are many possibilities, from simple aesthetic modifications such as a flag to exciting welded accessories that will transform your beloved ride into a great tool of civil disobedience.
But I don't have a bike?
Without a bike you can’t really be part of the Bike Bloc, but we can help fixing up bikes. There are many abandoned bikes in Copenhagen (only take bikes that have obviously been left there for a while and have no lock but do not take any bike in Christiania). Between 12pm and 3pm our bike workshop will be open for you to fix your bike.
If you don’t intend to be part of the Bike Bloc but just need a bike for transport in Copenhagen, we may be able to help but please bear in mind that the bicycles we have gathered and our team of bike hackers are dedicated to building the Bike Bloc. We are not mechanics to service the movements transport needs but activists building a new form of direct action.
SOME PRACTICALITIES
In the Candy Factory workshop
The bike workshop is a DIY space. This means that everybody must take responsibility for it to remain a safe and practical space to use. We are happy for anyone to use the tools but please make sure that you put them back where they belong as soon as you are finished with them. We are short of tools in general so if they get misplaced, it is the whole project that will suffer. There are also health and safety tips that everyone will be asked to respect to ensure that the Bike Bloc is built without tears.
We would be grateful for donations to keep running the workshop and cover all the costs that it entails.
Free DIY bike maintenance course
The Bike Bloc will also be running a free four day DIY skill share course in Bike Maintenance. From Friday 11th to Monday 14th, 12-1pm beginning with Punctures, then breaks, gears and the final day on bearings.
BIKE BLOC PARTY
Huge party with electro composer Filastine, speakers including Naomi Klein and Michael Hardt and more, in the big top at Christiania, to raise the energy for Reclaim Power.
FURTHER INFORMATION
For more information ring 52766898 or email: bikebloc@climatecamp.org.uk
Follow the Bike Bloc on twitter: @fbyl
the bike bloc zine
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